Singers & Songwriters: Mike Wilde - Rebecca Everett

Mike Wilde - Another Place.

Background and quote - ‘Another Place’ is the debut Single from Singer/Songwriter Mike Wilde. An accomplished multi–instrumentalist and live performer, Mike Wilde spent time in Australia and on the road in Europe as a touring musician learning his craft before embarking on a career as a solo artist. 

In the 90's Wilde performed on vocals and bass with Sydney band PLUS, releasing 2 EP's. The band made a number of TV appearances, including popular TV export "Home and Away." 

Evolving from modern funk into earthy singer-songwriter, his current works reflect the individual and shared experience of returning to country, of coming home. A gifted lyricist and vocalist, Wilde’s music resonates with contemporary adult experience, with a heightened sense of performance earned through years of playing live in Australia and Europe. 

Another Place has a spooky ‘70’s storyteller vibe to it. A classic, folk “love gone wrong” narrative with crystal clear vocals. The track is offset by simple percussion and choral backing vocals that rise to an orchestral crescendo aided by some blistering guitar work before ending hauntingly, just as it began. Vocals, guitars, bass and percussion were recorded by Mike Wilde himself, additional percussion by Ian V. Jones. The track was mixed by Ian V. Jones and Mike Wilde and was mastered by Don Bartley. 

‘I was recording some live takes of my songs on vocals and acoustic guitar at home and when I came back and listened to ‘Another Place’ I could hear other sounds in my head that needed to be there on the recording. So I added the tambourine, and then the bass and the song just grew really organically from there.’ - Mike Wilde.

This is a superb debut single. Mike has a voice that resonates and matches the musicianship beautifully. The expression 'timeless' is in my opinion appropriate, and my own comparisons would be Gordon Lightfoot and perhaps a stripped back Al Stewart. Can't disagree with the 'promo' words above.

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Rebecca Everett - Sting Of A Kiss.

Words from Rebecca - Recording is a delicate and wonderful challenge. Sometimes you get lucky...the earth sighs, the sky cracks open and the universe echoes in approval. This project feels like one of those moments. 

It's doubtful that any of this album could exist without periods of the obscurity and loss of faith, for we have to let our former stage of faith die to move onto the next.

I think the fear of death arises because we have been programmed to believe we are an object. The creation of this album came from being in a space between loss and faith, a meditation that brings deep, dark hidden mysteries up to the surface to look at. 

The album describes and shows my struggles with these and other ideologies. The newly released single "Sting of a Kiss" is off of the Seven Shades album out on October 2nd.

Some personal and reflective opinions from Rebecca above, and not surprisingly the featured song matches some of those sentiments. The single builds with both feeling and passion, its perhaps a little insight into the composers mind, at a point in time. It's also one fine song.

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Four For Tuesday: Indoor Creature - The Plaidians - Transviolet - Late Nite Cable

Indoor Creature - Present Thinking.

So who are Indoor Creature? Quoting them -Indoor Creature is a pop music project from Austin, TX composed of Caleb Fleischer (Vocals, keys, saxophone, synths) and Travis Kitchen (Drums, Bass, Guitar) with the goal of bringing people closer together and further apart.

You can find out more about the band and their music via the website (here) or over on Bandcamp (here).

Well 'Present Thinking' is a single release from a collection of twelve songs, and what a refreshing and very pleasing mixture of songs they are. Imaginative compositions are matched by some well produced music and vocals to match. I suppose indie pop would be a fair label, however they are more than capable of drifting into other styles.

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The Plaidians - The Follower.

Background promo words - Gary Thackrah & Justin Penkethman are Melbourne-based songwriters that share a passion for both acoustic and electronic textures. They have played many hundreds of gigs in many different bands and projects, but not many or enough together. “We’re both inspired by the same music, we just had to see what we could create together” says Gaz, “Jus & I had no plan, so we let it evolve”. 

‘The Follower’ is the first single from their debut album, which will be ready for release in February 2016. In the studio, they worked closely with producer/recording engineer Cam McKenzie (Mark Seymour) and collaborated with drummer Sean Jova Albers (The Grand Silent System, Seth Sentry). 

“‘The Follower’ is a laid back track that we really enjoyed recording and layering with synths and strings. We wanted it to sound reflective and have a real depth to it, and we’re real happy with how it turned out.” 

The song reflects on the feeling of isolation, of desire being just out of reach. Beginning with acoustic guitar and melancholy vocals, the song lifts with the string section and sets up a journey that finally builds to a full arrangement, all the while with a strong and compelling melody. 

With their single release, The Plaidians showcase how neatly they can weave acoustic and electronic sounds together in unpredictable and melodic ways: blending genres of pop, rock and electronica. Influenced by bands such as City & Colour and Radiohead, they present a sound that is as understated as The XX and the depth of Beck.

'The Follower' is a song I would liken to a vintage wine, or Oak barrel aged single malt whiskey. Not to be rushed and with so many textures and flavours, all to be sampled and enjoyed. OK so I expect other comparisons might work better, so concisely, this is quality on a good number of levels.

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Transviolet - New Bohemia.

The promo tells us - The self-titled debut EP from Transviolet is out now. "New Bohemia," is the EP's anthemic first single. 

Founded in New York and now based in Los Angeles, the four-piece band released its first song, "Girls Your Age," in July 2015. The startling frank coming-of-age track, which is included on the EP, rocketed to No. 1 on Hype Machine's main chart, No. 2 on the U.S. Spotify viral chart and No. 3 on the Global Spotify viral chart and now has nearly 900,000 Spotify streams.

Transviolet will play its very first show on September 29 at Neon Gold's Popshop West at The Echo, located in their adopted hometown of Los Angeles. The line-up for the sold-out show includes Alina Baraz & Galimatias and Farao. Transviolet will join Mikky Ekko on his fall North American tour, which kicks off on October 1 at Los Angeles' Roxy Theatre and includes a show at Rough Trade in Brooklyn on October 20. After the tour wraps, the band will head to London for a pair of dates.

OK so this band has already been noticed far and wide, however sometimes a good pop song is allowed on Beehive Candy, simply because it's available to stream, and we can.

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Late Nite Cable - All Nite Girl.

Background - Late Nite Cable are new to the scene, but have been gaining some major grassroots traction in the blogosphere. There most recent single "All Nite Girl" was recently featured in Impose's Week In Pop as well as in Deli Mag. 

Pete Roessler and Severine Casati are current Williamsburg NY natives with the prototypical millennial angst that comes in your 20s and 30s. The subject matter of their "nightlife Passion Pit" sound includes quitting that stuffy corporate job, getting out and coming home, and the vague romanticism of flings.

Well we are a little late to the party with this song, however it's a good introduction to Late Night Cable as their self-titled debut EP is scheduled for release in early October. It's a collection of high quality synth pop songs and the production is light enough, for both vocals and music to complement each other, rather than one dominate and suppress the other. If you like the single the EP is a must.

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Dawes - Majestic Theatre, Madison, 2010 (IA).

From the Internet Archive (IA) this is a concert recording of Dawes performing at the 600 capacity music venue, The Majestic Theatre, Madison, Wisconsin, USA, back on November 12th 2010.

For those unfamiliar with this fine band here is a fairly 'rough and ready' summary from Wikipedia - Dawes was formed from the band Simon Dawes after the departure of co-songwriter Blake Mills, subsequently abandoning a post-punk sound in favour of folk rock. Dawes has been described as having a Laurel Canyon sound derived from artists such as Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young.

At the invitation of producer Jonathan Wilson, the band joined a local informal jam session that included Conor Oberst, The Black Crowes's Chris Robinson, and Benmont Tench. The band recorded their debut album, North Hills, in Laurel Canyon in a live setting to analog tape, resulting in a sound that Rolling Stone magazine called "authentically vintage". Wilco multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone is also credited with appearing on the release.

Original keyboardist Alex Casnoff left the band in late 2010, and was replaced by Tay Strathairn. The band made their television debut on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on April 14, 2010. Dawes released their second album, Nothing Is Wrong, on June 7, 2011 and toured the US co-headlining with Blitzen Trapper. Dawes played alongside Jackson Browne at the Occupy Wall Street event in Liberty Park, on December 1, 2011. The band also appeared as themselves on the February 7, 2012 episode of the NBC television series Parenthood.

The band released their latest album back in June this year and they are undertaking a number of gigs in the USA into December, more details can be found on their website (see link below). Dawes is composed of brothers Taylor (guitars and vocals) and Griffin Goldsmith (drums), along with Wylie Gelber (bass) and Tay Strathairn (keyboards).

Recording Details: Soundboard and audience matrix, WAV to FLAC.

Sound Quality: Very Good

Set List:

01. Intro
02. My Girl To Me
03. When You Call My Name
04. So Well
05. That Western Skyline
06. God Rest My Soul
07. My Way Back Home
08. Bedside Manner
09. How Far We've Come
10. Love Is All I Am
11. Time Spent In Los Angeles
12. Peace In The Valley
13. Fire Away
14. When My Time Comes
15. encore break
16. encore intro
17. A Little Bit Of Everything
18. Let Me Be Your Anchor
19. aftershow music on PA
20. recordist's signout

Website: Official Here.

Comments: There are FLAC, Ogg Vorbis and mp3 files along with the streaming material over at the Internet Archive (here).

Stream Below: 

Sundays Alternative Take - Synths and Fine Vocals

River Tiber - When The Time Is Right.

Background - Toronto multi-instrumentalist, producer and vocalist River Tiber has shared When The Time Is Right, his first release since 2013's debut EP The Star Falls. Dummy Mag has a stream of the five song alt R&B gem ahead of its September 16 release and following track features from Complex and The Fader. River Tiber - real name Tommy Paxton-Beesley - captured a flurry of attention earlier this year when Drake's Polaris Music Prize Short Listed If You're Reading This It's Too Late standout "No Tellin'" prominently sampled his then-unreleased "No Talk."

Most recently River Tiber was named one of three Canadian entrants to Red Bull Music Academy Paris 2015. RBMA said this of the future star: "As River Tiber, singer/multi-instrumentalist and producer Tommy Paxton-Beesley is unafraid to push his love for R&B and hip hop production into unusual places: pitching his vocals to sound like Mariah Carey, multitracking his voice into a dozen ghost choruses, and narrowing the gap in the soul spectrum between Jodeci and Flying Lotus."

The EP's title track is down tempo and cleverly layered, vocals drift above the soundtrack, rarely dominating, but always an essential part of the number.

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Oshan - Dafty (feat. Krue).

Background - Oshan has a colorful visual aesthetic combined with the sound of swinging future bass. His first original, "Pusheen", endorsed by Diplo's BBC Radio 1 show, crushed the world over and demanded attention by introducing himself as an artist to watch. Now Oshan returns in a big way with his single "Dafty", featuring vocals from Hamburg based Krue, and mixed and mastered by legend and studio partner of Flume, Naderi.

Already receiving a lot of attention 'Dafty' is a juxtaposition between Krue's talented vocals and the almost quirky musical beginning that finally settles into a charming soundtrack.

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Eons - Molecule (from the EP Serene Machine).

Background - After the release of their EP Serene Machine, which catapulted Eons to the ranks of dream-pop/dreamwave aurality with a sound self-described as, “a moody but slick brand of synth pop,” the Miami-based synth-pop duo release their highly anticipated music video for single “Like A Dream” directed by Claudia La Bianca.

Similar to the EP Serene Machine, “Like A Dream” exudes a plethora of nostalgic 80’s homages and lush soundscapes along with ethereal vocals and pulsating synthesisers. The music video illustrates a once-lovestruck couple experiencing separation while simultaneously reflecting on past memories. The video, directed and animated by Claudia La Bianca, echoes the fantastical nature of the song’s production and sentiment with vivid visuals and out-of-this-world animation.

OK so the video for 'Like A Dream' is featured over on our BeeVids page, and for an additional taste of the band, we have 'Molecule' (from the EP). Finely produced synth pop, with that timeless feel, this band spoil us with really enjoyable music.

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Remmi X CAPPA - Killin It / Star Spangled (Foldy Mashup Mix).

Background - Nashville electronic/pop artists CAPPA and REMMI, along with producer Foldy, have collaborated on a mash-up of the pair's two tracks, "Killin It" and "Star Spangled."

This collaboration is a result of each artist's involvement in MTV's Scream. After each track was featured in the same Scream episode, REMMI contacted fellow Nashville artist CAPPA, pulled in producer Foldy, and the three of them created this end of summer anthem. CAPPA’s “Killin It” was released as a single from her debut self-titled EP on May 26th. REMMI’s “Star Spangled” was released as a single back in May..

Both artists have been praised within the Nashville music scene, but as far as advancing the Nashville Pop scene globally, REMMI says, “Nashville Pop has been around for awhile. Folks like Katie Herzig, Amy Stroup, Madi Diaz have been putting out really catchy, synthy records for the last 5 years at least. They've paved the way for this next generation of Nashville Pop artists to come along and branch out into more experimental, electronic-leaning sounds. I don't want people to hear our music and say, wow that's so different for Nashville. I want them to say that it's different for anywhere. Artists here like CAPPA, Super Duper, KiND... we are growing a scene that is full of artists who would be good anywhere. And that's what excites me about the Nashville music scene."

This just works so very, very well. It's one of those tracks when I could list superlatives, however I just say give it a listen, it promotes itself.

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